Kathmandu July 4 : The government has expressed its commitment to provide all resources required for the prevention and control of contagious Lumpy skin disease among the cattle.

In this connection, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has shown necessary concern for the prevention and control of sporadic outbreak of disease, which is taking the form of a pandemic. PM Dahal issued necessary directives to Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Dr Beduram Bhusal and high-placed officials of the ministry to come up with effective measures for bring the disease under control, PM secretariat shared.

The Prime Minister categorically directed the concerned authorities to effectively mobilize veterinarians, increased vaccine supply and arrange necessary human resource for immediately providing inoculation services. So far the government has imported 737,000 doses of vaccine and supplied to all seven provinces.

According to the Department of Livestock Service, vaccine has been administered to 172,128 cattle so far. It may be noted that the federal government has made available a budget of Rs 100,000 each to the local governments for upcoming fiscal year for pandemic control under the conditional grant. According to Department’s Director General Dr Samjhana Kumari Kafle, the federal government has earmarked budget for the management of a veterinary doctor each in 161 local governments and technician in all local governments.

Lumpy skin is a contagious virus disease transmitted to cattle. The cattle with the disease develop symptoms such as high fever, loss of appetite, reduced milk output and enlarged lymph nodes. He further shared that generally 1-3 percent of infected animal might die due to the pandemic and the mortality rate can go up for lack of necessary care and primary aid.

The disease was first reported in Sundarharaicha Municipality of Morang district in July 2020. In the first two years after the detection of contagious disease, as many as 13 out of 3,301 infected cattle of 16 districts died due to the pandemic in Nepal.

According to the department, the mid-hill and hilly regions of Karnali, Sudurpaschim, Koshi and Lumbini provinces are more affected by the disease. Out of 709,203 infected animals in the current fiscal year, 453,809 have recovered. Another, 25,782 animals have died from this disease. Currently, 290,602 animals are actively infected. The department claims that the rate of infection is gradually decreasing.